EP036: Turning Followers into Leaders with Captain David Marquet

After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy at the top of his class, David Marquet was asked to become the Captain of a nuclear-powered attack submarine. One year later, Captain Marquet was given an opportunity to lead a different submarine, one which had the worst performance record in the fleet. It was on that ship Captain Marquet realized the leader-follower environment was inadequate for his organization to perform at a top level. He shares his story with us today and takes us through the journey which is documented in his book, Turn the Ship Around, a book USA Today has named one of the Top 10 Business Books of all time.

Key Takeaways:

[1:30] Captain Marquet describes his leadership experience on the worst performing submarine in the Navy, at the time.

[7:24] How did eliminating the task and report policy help to turn the ship around?

[14:14] What are the rituals, habits and protocols of all organizations?

[18:03] What is wrong with being told to “Be Empowered”?

[22:20] Defining businesses in a two-dimensional space and why your team should function diagonally.

[28:50] Ask your people “What is the timeframe you want to win over?”

[34:21] Giving up control in very small steps and evaluating the outcome is the first step to implementing Captain Marquet’s practices.

[39:38] Give people permission to give you feedback about your performance.

Mentioned in This Episode:

Captain David Marquet

Turn the Ship Around